Jail Doesn't Accept AMEX

January 7, 2015.
Passing Thoughts
I heard yesterday that it was possible that the Canadian journalist held captive in Egypt, might be released.  What about Peter - the Latvian?

The Tale
I did not sleep that night.  I just lay awake in bed.  I just lay there.  A thought would enter my mind and I would allow it to swirl around for a bit, but for the most part I just lay there.

Wednesday morning, Natalie finally was able to reach Greg's brother at 8:30 AM and asked,
"Did you hear what happened last night?"
"What?"
"Dad was arrested".
Immediately, the uncle hung up.

I remember, I think, but I could be wrong, that I received a call from Greg's New York attorney around 9 ish.  She had done all of the contractual work for MBI since the beginning.  She had actually been one of the executors of Greg's will for the past twenty years as well.  Natalie and Karina were little kids when the initial purchase had taken place, and Greg thought that if the company would become successful, it would be prudent to have more than one lawyer screw the kids out of an inheritance - so she was one of five executors.  I have this memory that she called me in Florida, and told me she arranged for an attorney in Chicago who would go to court with Greg, and that more or less by noon he would appear before the Judge.  She promised to call me as soon as she knew what was going on.  Natalie meanwhile, had contacted her lawyer friends in Alabama to see what they could find online through judicial filings.  They came up with nothing.  No one had a clue what was going on.  I knew nothing, and I just had to wait, and so there was no point in calling anyone as I had no information at all.  Karina and I paced around the house, and I also had that appointment with the plastic surgeon later that day about the melanoma thing.

Shortly after twelve, the phone rang, it was the New York attorney.  She stammered, she hummed and hawed, and spoke practically as an illiterate which agitated me to no end.  Through her stammering she let me know that Greg had appeared before the Judge in Chicago, and that he was to be transferred to Alabama, as he was to be indicted for $100 million securities fraud, criminally, and that he would have to go to Cook County Jail and wait there until he could and be transferred to Alabama to be charged (whatever, not sure about all of the legal steps - still - after a full year) AND
here is the kicker, she said " I can't tell you anything else, as I will be in breach of attorney client privilege."

CLICK!

I put the phone down, and with that same stunned reaction as I had the night before, it registered with me -- 'If this is our lawyer, I am in trouble'.  I needed to do something, that was clear.  I called MBI and asked to speak to the brother.  He was not available, so I asked to speak to Greg's secretary.
She was completely distraught and confided that five of the executives, including the brother, had barricaded themselves in Greg's office.  Although I left a voice message on the brother's line, there was no response.  I remember several phone calls with Natalie and I think that by around 3 o'clock that afternoon, I called a colleague of Greg's to say,

"Sorry we will be unable to attend your wedding, oh, and BTW Greg was arrested and I need a lawyer". (The actual message was given to his secretary).

Almost instantly, I had a return phone call, and unprepared I babbled like a raving lunatic about what had happened.  There was a certain desperation in my voice that made Mr. Friendly empathize and he told me he knew exactly the man who would be able to help Greg, and to leave it with him.

Karina and Natalie now were reacting to our new reality.  Greg was going to Cook County Jail, one of America's notoriously dangerous places.  Karina was Googling one horrific fact after another and rather than crying, it simply motivated her to roll up her sleeves and be engaged in saving her Dad.  Karina called Natalie and the two of them started to split responsibilities and tasks.  Natalie was to contact the Chicago law firm and get the details of the process to book Greg.  He was 64, turning 65 in April 2014.  The girls thought that maybe there was a chance that he could be placed in the infirmary rather than in the regular prison section.  Natalie would contact the liaison person at the law firm and see what we could negotiate.

Karina continued gathering practical information regarding prison life, none of it good.  Here I was, a sixty year old 'rule follower', someone who had never even received a speeding ticket, and my husband was going to jail.  This was a world I had never, ever, ever, ever imagined would be possible.  The more Karina read about Cook County Jail, the more we feared for Greg's life.  How would he be able to live through this unimaginable reality.  We did not eat anything, we just paced around just like the caged lions in the horrid London zoo, trapped in small cages, on the brink of insanity.

The following tale recorded in my blog is of course a matter of public record, but all parties involved will remain nameless or have altered names to protect myself from any repercussions.  The experiences I record are my own impressions and personal opinions and not the opinion of anyone else.  The whole process facing us was inconceivable, and the fact that we were even having to scramble around to find a small life line for our family was stunning.  After spending millions of dollars on legal fees, that same national firm abandoned us, and Greg for that matter.

As I was to learn later, the reality in prison, is not what respectful law abiding citizens think it is.  Man's inhumanity to man is astounding.  I hope that our family experience will be a wake up call to all rational people who believe in goodness and have faith and trust that good people can change the world and make it a better place.  As a society, we have become blind out of convenience to ignore the ugly.

By around 10 PM that night, Karina was calling Cook County Department of Corrections, and was speaking to anyone in any jail department who would listen.  She dialed any and every number she could find online.  She was like a dog after a bone.

"My elderly father.....he has never been in trouble with the law....." etc etc she was trying desperately, to get some information of where her Dad was.  She would try crying.  She would try the angry approach, she was very creative and finally, she found a sympathetic ear.  We learned that Greg had been processed and was Inmate #20131113192.  By my deductive reasoning skills, I figure he was the 192nd person to be processed that night.  Karina was given the name of Greg's social worker, and a phone number of someone who would be able to give us further information.

We learned, through the internet, not from any hired attorney, that we would have to set up a phone account with Cook County Department of Corrections in order to be able to communicate with him.  We could not call Greg.  The outside can't call in.  So the inmate is allowed to call out during the time they are allowed to leave their cells, but only if they have an account set up.  Obviously, the lack of communication would have a negative affect on any person.

Securus.  That is the name of the phone service company that we found.  They take your credit card info and arrange for phone time in jail and the credit can follow the prisoner, jail to jail, state to state. Securus is a national company.  While researching on the internet, we also discovered that prison phone card credit is a highly competitive business and some of these service providers are less reputable than others.  The Securus account could be set up either by phone or online, but the catch for us was that Natalie was calling from Canada and we could not get through after holding for 45 minutes plus.  We then tried the online method, only to find out that we needed a credit card with a US address.  We only had one card with a US billing address -- American Express.

And that is how we learned that jail doesn't take American Express.